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Who God Uses

The Bible is filled with examples of two important lessons: God can use anyone and whom God calls, God equips. Both these lessons are illustrated in the life of the prophet Amos.

Some prophets came to their ministries with impressive résumés—Isaiah had connections to royalty, Daniel was a member of a privileged Jerusalem family, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel were priests. But Amos was a farmer—he tended flocks and took care of a grove of sycamore-fig trees. And he wasn't from Jerusalem in the south or Bethel in the north—he was "among the herdsmen of Tekoa," a small town south of another small town, Bethlehem (Amos 1:1). When the priest of Bethel tried to drive him away, Amos justified his ministry this way: "I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel'" (Amos 7:14-15).

That is a perfect example of who God uses—people who are living faithfully, doing what they know to do that day. Amos didn't set out to be a prophet, but God saw that He was faithful in small things so He put him in charge of larger things (Matthew 25:21, 23).

There is often a connection between the small and the large. God called Amos in the first half of the eighth century B.C., at the height of Israel's military and economic prosperity. The wealthy in the land were abusing and taking advantage of the less fortunate (Amos 3:15–4:1); it's possible, as a simple farmer, Amos had suffered injustices. If so, he would have been the perfect person for God to call to speak words of judgment (Amos 5:11-13).

God looks for one quality above all in those He calls: Availability—saying "Yes" when God says "Go."

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